Chinese. ‘Horse-Face’.
Name of a guardian of the Underworld in Chinese mythology.
In Diyu
(fig.),
the tasks are divided, with some guards working at night, while others
serve during the day, and whereas Ma Mian is a watchman of the night,
his counterpart for the day is
Niu Tou,
i.e.
‘Ox-Head’
(fig.).
They are said to be the first creatures
a dead soul meets
upon arriving in the Underworld, that is if
not counting Hei Bai Wu Chang, the guardians that
are in charge of bringing the souls of the dead to the Underworld.
They are typically dispatched to
capture any lost souls or the souls of those that try to escape from
hell. To track the latter, they may roam the earth disguised as humans.
In some stories
Ox-Head and Horse-Face directly escort the newly deceased to the
Underworld and in the narrative Journey to the West,
they are sent to capture Sun Wukong,
though the latter
overpowers them and scares them away. Monkey Kingthen breaks into the Underworld
and crosses out his name from the record of living souls, hence granting
himself immortality. His attribute
and weapon is a trident (fig.).
Also spelled Mamian.His features are comparable with those of Wannongkrahn.
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